Recent reports indicate that U.S. cities and towns generate more than 410,000 tons of waste each day. Until recently, most of this municipal solid waste was disposed at landfill dumping sites. However, in more recent years, the number of available landfills has grown smaller as more and more such sites become filled or are closed for violating state and federal environmental laws and for contaminating groundwater supplies.
In an effort to curb the increased environmental pressures caused by minicipal solid waste, recent efforts have focused on resource recovery, namely the incineration of such wastes and recovery of the heat produced thereby. This recovered heat is used to produce steam for heating buildings, running air conditioners, or powering the turbine of an electrical generator.
A serious problem associated with municipal solid waste incinerators is the emission of dioxins and furans during the combustion process. These artificial organic compounds, such as polychlorinated dibenzo-dioxins, and polychlorinated dibenzo-furans, are suspected of causing a wide range of illnesses, from cancer to birth defects. Scrubbers and baghouses have been used to reduce these emissions with some success, but have not completely eliminated the problem. Accordingly, a significant advance in the art would be realized if a more effective method for reducing toxic gaseous emissions from municipal solid waste incinerators were devised.